Lookin at movie posters

First, an introduction. These two posters really do hang side-by-side on my living room wall at home. The transformers was put up by a former roommate who didn't keep it when they moved out. We left it up so the walls wouldn't be completely bare. The Indiana Jones poster was purchased a little earlier this year at that poster sale that happens in the SU courtyard every year.
The first thing one notices about these two is that they are literally night and day opposites. After looking analytically for a few moments I realized that they are also opposites in a design and figurative sense as well as literal.
Indiana is busy, bright, cramming information on in a collage like format. Also Indiana appears to be entirely hand drawn. Transformers is dark, sparse, and has a computer generated sharp lines and corners feel to the text and images.
When we got the Indiana poster we commented on the possibility of it being a re-print, after all the original posters had to have come out in, like, the stone ages, right? Also it was cheap. Now I realize that the poster is very good at reminding the audience of the movie and the characters and the highlights and such. The Transformers poster is much better at drawing one in and sparking curiosity. I wouldn't be surprised if the Indiana poster was designed and made after the movie came out as a collectors item, while the Transformers poster is an advertising piece.

Typography Lab stuff

I found it challenging to find a balance betwen simple and complex. I know this is something everyone everywhere, but I feel like talking about it: Simple is better, but after just a few bits you don't feel like you've worked on it enough so you want to do more.
Miles suggestion to save copies and try other things seems like a better idea (in hind sight) than continuing to add things to a simple piece.

Attempt collage

Despite flu-like body aches (please god don't let me be getting the plague) while working on this I actually like a few elements of it.
First, I'm a complete sucker for Blue. When I design lights for a show (theatre), I instruct my assistant and co-artistic-people to be very vocal about the level of Blue light in the show, otherwise I will eventually have a completely blue show.
This, this did edge quite far into the blue spectrum, with only a few bits of other colors to keep some excuse of ballance. But I think it's pretty, so there.
The other thing I like is the cycle. For me it starts with the woman crying down into the waterfalls then up and around. The cloud's shape could have been more supportive or interesting, but I don't know if I'll be getting back into the lab to work on this again this week.
I also like water melon, can you tell?

Crayon-scribble Walle and Crane

I sat down determined to put pen to pixel and scribble something and learn/practice with photoshop's drawing capabilities.
The stating point was forcing the stylis onto the pad and then scribbling. The scribbles evolved into the crane.
Next I tried the 3d isometric perspective cube, which became the robot. Color I was just beginning to explore when it was time to go, but I did take a moment to add his little insect friend.
Now I'm using the Walle and Crane fill-in for a story to start other 'what can I do with this medium' works; my biggest frustration is that the only straight line drawing tool I've found is the vector based pen and line thing. I really wish photoshop had something like good ole microsoft paint's straight line drawer so I could click two points and have a pixel (not vector) line between the two which I could then smuge erase and toy with like the brush strokes. Sigh.
But still, this is SO much fun!

Platon's Pics: un worldly

I followed the link on the converse add done by Platon, it led to a New Yorker article about Planton's recent photographing of american soldiers in a before and after kind of style.

These two I picked out to represent the most and least realistic looking of Platon's photos. The sailor appears, to me, to be nearly normal other than B&W, and some fuzzy background and otherwise somewhat 'aged photo' looking. The gun-toting soldier looks un real, intensely detailed so the gun barrel seems to be poking me in the face but also my eye cannot firgure out the depth so it also looks like a flat drawing.
This erry effect is even stranger on the human faces in the other photos through the link. The wedding picture creeps me out even more than this soldier (I wonder if I can put that pic in the middle of this post...Woo you can click and drag photos! OK, anyway,
I know in my head this is a wedding and a happy time, but this looks as happy as a funeral being broken up by the SS.

Looking at the nerd

I was looking around google images when this popped up as part of a posting referring to Time magazine's putting out a top 10 list of top 10 video games of 2007. The image has nothing to do with the article other than Halo 3 getting the top spot and Microsoft owning the developer of Halo.
It's small enough that I can't read the year but from the disk ole bill is holding this has to be from the eighties.
I'm wondering about the goals of the photographer who took this. For me the disk takes first focus, followed by bill's eyes and glasses area. I suppose that follows the goal of the cover to be about this new-fangled thing called software.
Not to go into too deeply about how this picture would be done different now, almost 30 years later I can't help but notice that bill's face is nearly blending into the background, and a very different color from the hand 'holding' the disk.
The background kinda lends a halo or glow to bill's head, but the mutual colors making him blend in and have orange skin- did people like bill in the 80s? It doesn't look like it.

City block in winter

I was playing with photoshop, looking towards creating bacgrounds for a web comic, exploring the pressure sensitivity vs. controling the size, as well as trying to remember perspective and vanishing points.
The buildings started out level then were skewed, tough I didn't really draw them straight to start with so...
It is so much fun to play in photoshop!

Just keep swimming...

I really like the expression and realized how it kinda looked like she was pretending to be a fishy, so I combined the scratch assignment with today's photo editing stuff.
I worked on the shadows around the eyes and tried to add a subtle halo that ended up not being very subtle.
Again the colors, I enjoyed the highlights on the greenery and color layers for her hair.
I'm not sure what but I would like to take another go and work with the color of her face, see if I could remove some of the cloudy day effect; or turn her into a mermaid. (feel free to suggest how to go about that, anyone who reads this)

The first other...

This is my other. Okay, my significant other; I totally cheated and used a picture of my girlfriend I had from this summer, which if you look carefully at the greenery you will realize it's not fall in the background.
I promise to complete the going out and facing the fear of photographing the other when I have time, which is not on Mondays.
I played with the color and brightness mostly; taking down the brightness of the background, bringing up the blue of the house and the magenta and red of her hair, giving the turtles some more pop.
I like the diversity of color a lot - I will probably say that a lot as I pay a lot of attention to color and should keep value in mind more often.

I may play with this one more later if I get back to it, I like the lines already though.

Here are most of my Letter postings, Miles really makes photoshooping this into good pictures look easy...

Obama Image percieveing

Obama Image response

First Glance: A woman with an afro and a gun. She stands out against the white background better than obama. Next I notice obama in a strange headdress and robe, or suggestion of robe.

At which point my personal perspective kicks in, realizing this is an anti-obama drawing, and as i am Pro- obama I react negatively to the drawing, at first dismissing is as propaganda. But it's an assignment so I press on and look again.

I still don't recognize the gun lady, but her stance and head tilt (non-dominating) contrast with her eyebrows and apparel, and gun (dominant).

Historically speaking I draw from my experiences that both Republican and Democrats or their supporters will say anything with the smallest grain of truth to support their puffed up story, usually with the intention of making the other look bad.

Further scrutiny points out the picture of Osama bi Laden the wall above a fireplace burning the american flag. Though I learned in boy scouts that the proper way to retire a flag that was worn out is by burning I'm sure that's not the message here. I notice obama is wearing a head wrap similar to the picture of bi Laden, and his eyes are closed. Both people are very racially caricatured.

Ethically speaking, can propaganda be ethical? the supports may say yes, those not in support will say no. Out right lies are less ethical than facts stated fairly and openly, but it's difficult to call truth completely ethical without the whole truth.

How is our writing or the writing of others influenced by symbolic language we use to convey a message? All cultures use symbols to communicate meaning within groups?
-The symbol which stands out the most would be the terrorist-dress of the gun lady and the burning flag- both connecting obama with terrorism and anti-americanism.

Criticallyspeaking I can't think of anything new to say

Technicallythis picture is very simple, hand drawn with non saturate or bright colors. I believe that is the style the New Yorker uses regularly.

To sum up, this picture is anti- obama propaganda which isn't any more truthful or ethical or factual than the sara palin photoshop job.